JAEPO 2015 Show Wrap Up

The JAEPO 2015 Show kicked off and finished over the weekend, and there were some amazing arcade machines on show and games to be played, not to mention some very exciting announcements!

First and foremost though, I think we should all take a moment to appreciate Tekken producer, Katsuhiro Harada, who spent his time at the show in a Pikachu onesie (and his infamous glasses, of course) to promote Pokken Tournament. It is the first in the series of images below and you will also see him in the Tekken 7 video below intorducing Shaheen and Lucky Chloe.

Secondly, there were a lot of great games on show and some very exciting announcements! Keep reading to get all the details!

You can watch the Tekken 7 Lucky Chloe and Shaheen walkthrough featuring producer Katsuhiro Harada in his pikachu onesie below (courtesy of 4GamerMovie). Apologies about the lack of English translation but you can still see how the characters play:

Konami

Konami exhibited some great arcade machines, including Disney Tsum Tsum (or Zam Zam), Monster Strike MULTI BURST, Jubeat Prop, and their new addition to the GuitarFreaks and DrumMania series - GITADORA Tri-Boost! You can check out some images below.

Square Enix

Square Enix also had a great show over the weekend, exhibiting their new 1vs1, mystical fighting game - School of Ragnarok, plus Lord of Vermilion III, and Puzzle & Dragons Battle Tournament. They also made a couple of very cool announcements. Firstly, Gunslinger Stratos 2 will feature a collaboration with Street Fighter IV Ultra in which Gunslinger characters will be able to take on SF character costumes, which is an interesting idea. Secondly, they announced the title of their Final Fantasy arcade game which has been eagerly anticipated for some time now: Dissidia Final Fantasy! Dissidia was originally released for PSP as a fighting game, and in the trailer we can see that it will be carrying this on in what looks like a 3vs3 battle scenario. Watch this space for more updates about the game as they become available and you can check out the official site, although this is still pretty basic at the moment.

You can check out the images below from the show or there is an announcement trailer for the Gunslinger Stratos 2 and Street Fighter IV Ultra collaboration below (courtesy of Square Enix Channel), and see which characters will be taking on what costumes:

You can also check out the Dissidia Final Fantasty Trailer below (courtesy of Rajman Gaming HD) or you can check out the screenshots at the bottom (sourced from hardcoregamer):

Capcom

Capcom was a booth of pleasant and exciting surprises this year! First there is the much talked about Luigi Mansion Arcade which received quite a bit of attention at the Sega booth (you can see the controllers for the game below). crossbeats REV. was also very popular at the Capcom booth and another music game titled Cytus Omega or Cytus Ω which takes a new spin on the music rhythm game genre. Instead of going side to side, or the notes running vertically up or down the screen, this game kind of does all of it (I know that doesn't make much sense). So the line the eye is supposed to follow runs up AND down the screen and as it crosses little bubbles on the screen players tap the bubbles, or zig zag from one to the other, or slide bubbles down, and basically they can appear anywhere on the screen. Check out the video below to see how it plays.

Capcom also announced at the show that they will be making an arcade game based on the Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan manga series/anime. They have an official site up already, although this is still in construction. The series is set in a world where humnaity lives in isolated cities surrounded by giant walls, and are plagued by a humanoid race of giants called Titans who attack and eat the humans. It'll be interesting to see what they can do with concept.

You can check out images for crossbeats REV. and Luigi Mansion Arcade below, and you can check out the video for Cytus Ω (Omega) below (courtesy of RayarkInc):

Taito

As well as showing off their e-money system at the show, Taito exhbited an unplayable Wizrogue - Labyrinth of Wizardry cabinet, but they did have tablets available for visitors to play with the mobile version, and reportedly there will be some cross platform features in which players will be able to use their mobile version to train their characters, store items and be alerted to location only events/challenges etc. - a great way to incorporate, rather than compete with mobile gaming.

Taito also had Left 4 Dead -Survivors on display as well. You can check out the images for both these arcade games below.

Raw Thrills

Raw Thrills was exhibiting their motion simulation version of Jurassic Park arcade machine, which is due for production shortly. This is actually a rather exciting game and is being released in time for the latest movie starring Chris Pratt.

Seimitsu and Sanwa were also at show displaying their parts, including joysticks and buttons, and both stands received attention for their wares at show and in the twitterverse.

The JAEPO 2015 show, needless to say, was quite successful and displayed the continuing love for arcade that exists in Japan.